Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Sunil060902 · CC BY-SA 3.0The sea makes up 9% of the area within 5 km. Footpaths add up to 132 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 8.3 for every square kilometre. Parks and playing fields in Ebbsfleet Valley add up to 9.0 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Ebbsfleet Valley grades A for the outdoors: #17 of 87 in Kent. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and bad.
Ebbsfleet Valley’s strongest suit is the sea, followed by dense footpaths.
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Ebbsfleet Valley, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
Graded, never part of the overall grade (like History and Civic life). It measures what is mapped: OS Open Greenspace leaves out woodland and open-access land that isn’t a park, and OpenStreetMap’s rural paths are more complete in some places than others.
The 60 UK towns and cities of 2,800 to 3,100 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against towns its size, Ebbsfleet Valley stands out most for park space per resident: only 5 of the other 59 have more. It falls furthest behind on homes near a park, where 36 of the others do better.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rowlands Castle Hampshire | A+ | 26.1 | 100% | 5 | 48% |
| 2 | Halling Kent | A+ | 3.8 | 100% | 4.6 | 54% |
| 3 | Arundel West Sussex | A+ | 4.4 | 100% | 3.8 | 56% |
| 4 | Theale Berkshire | A+ | 5 | 100% | 3.8 | 39% |
| 5 | Cuxton Kent | A+ | 25.2 | 90% | 4 | 44% |
| 6 | Horton Heath Hampshire | A+ | 10 | 100% | 3.3 | 13% |
| 7 | Beaminster Dorset | A | 4.1 | 89% | 3.4 | 100% |
| 8 | Ebbsfleet Valley Kent | A | 9 | 77% | 8.3 | 0% |
| 9 | Downton Wiltshire | A | 4.3 | 100% | 2 | 59% |
| 10 | Langwith Derbyshire | A | 19.6 | 100% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 11 | Ellistown Leicestershire | A | 7.5 | 100% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 12 | Llangollen Clwyd | A | 3.5 | 91% | 2.5 | 76% |
| 13 | Mortimer Berkshire | A | 2.4 | 100% | 3.8 | 0% |
| 14 | Menai Bridge Gwynedd | A | 1.8 | 100% | 2.4 | 7% |
| 15 | New Marske North Yorkshire | A− | 4.4 | 90% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 16 | Knighton Powys | A− | 2.7 | 81% | 3.4 | 34% |
| 17 | Seaton Sluice Northumberland | A− | 2.2 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 18 | Rhodes Greater Manchester | B+ | 16.6 | 78% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 19 | Milton-under-Wychwood and Shipton-under-Wychwood Oxfordshire | B+ | 4.1 | 87% | 1.3 | 100% |
| 20 | Welham Green Hertfordshire | B+ | 2.5 | 93% | 4.4 | 0% |
| 21 | Almondsbury Gloucestershire | B+ | 7.9 | 77% | 4 | 0% |
| 22 | Wing Buckinghamshire | B | 2.4 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 23 | Newton and Blackwell Derbyshire | B | 2.6 | 91% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 24 | Camelford Cornwall | B | 2 | 100% | 1.5 | 33% |
| 25 | Newport Essex | B | 2.5 | 100% | 2.8 | 0% |
| 26 | Denholme West Yorkshire | B | 1.6 | 100% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 27 | Weldon Northamptonshire | B | 8.2 | 100% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 28 | Bugbrooke Northamptonshire | B− | 3.7 | 80% | 3 | 0% |
| 29 | Long Hanborough Oxfordshire | B− | 1.3 | 89% | 2.7 | 18% |
| 30 | Harwell Oxfordshire | B− | 1.4 | 85% | 2.3 | 42% |
| 31 | Crumbles East Sussex | B− | 0.3 | 44% | 3.6 | 0% |
| 32 | Henley-in-Arden Warwickshire | C+ | 4.6 | 58% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 33 | Over Cambridgeshire | C+ | 1.3 | 100% | 2.7 | 0% |
| 34 | Etwall Derbyshire | C+ | 2.3 | 100% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 35 | Capel St Mary Suffolk | C+ | 1.5 | 59% | 3 | 24% |
| 36 | Rolleston on Dove Staffordshire | C+ | 3.8 | 84% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 37 | Swillington West Yorkshire | C | 2.2 | 68% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 38 | Hendy and Fforest Dyfed | C | 2.1 | 100% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 39 | Sutton Courtenay Oxfordshire | C | 1.2 | 23% | 4 | 6% |
| 40 | Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll Gwynedd | C | 0.8 | 71% | 1.6 | 8% |
| 41 | Bottesford Leicestershire | C | 3.9 | 69% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 42 | Haddenham Cambridgeshire | C | 2.2 | 86% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 43 | Fenstanton Cambridgeshire | C− | 0.8 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 44 | Great Leighs Essex | C− | 1.5 | 87% | 2.2 | 0% |
| 45 | Lostwithiel Cornwall | C− | 1.6 | 67% | 1.5 | 11% |
| 46 | Burnopfield County Durham | C− | 1.5 | 50% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 47 | St Mary's Bay Kent | D | 0 | 0% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 48 | Cleobury Mortimer Shropshire | D | 0.8 | 64% | 2 | 2% |
| 49 | Kelsall Cheshire | D | 1 | 57% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 50 | Gamlingay Cambridgeshire | D | 2.1 | 32% | 2 | 0% |
| 51 | Scotter Lincolnshire | D | 2.6 | 61% | 0.5 | 0% |
| 52 | Gobowen Shropshire | D | 1.2 | 50% | 1.2 | 2% |
| 53 | Gilberdyke East Riding of Yorkshire | D | 0.7 | 90% | 0.3 | 0% |
| 54 | Thurston Suffolk | D | 1.6 | 39% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 55 | Bampton Oxfordshire | D | 1.1 | 63% | 2 | 0% |
| 56 | Hunmanby North Yorkshire | D | 0.3 | 33% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 57 | Kirton in Lindsey Lincolnshire | D− | 1.7 | 57% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 58 | Boroughbridge North Yorkshire | D− | 0.4 | 60% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 59 | Langstone Gwent | D− | 0.1 | 46% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 60 | Feltwell Norfolk | D− | 1.1 | 63% | 0.4 | 0% |
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Ebbsfleet Valley’s built-up area.
The biggest is Swanscombe Heritage Park, 26 ha (65 acres). Directions go to the park’s nearest public entrance where Ordnance Survey maps one.
Each square is 1 in 100 residents: green lives within 400 m of a public park, garden or playing field (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace).
About 700 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 52 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 57 residents.
Protected landscapes within 30 km, by direction and distance from the edge of the built-up area; circle size shows each one’s area. National Landscapes were called Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty until 2023.
Protected landscape begins just outside the 5 km ring the Outdoors Grade measures, so Ebbsfleet Valley scores 0% on it even though the Kent Downs National Landscape is 4.1 mi away.
132 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Ebbsfleet Valley and the kilometre around it, 8.3 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
The King Charles III England Coast Path, a national route, passes Ebbsfleet Valley. The regional route here is the 1066 Harold's Way.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
The town’s 1991–2020 averages (Met Office HadUK-Grid) and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have 12½+ hours of daylight, highs of 15 °C or more and little rain for the town.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 8.3 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 16.6 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 7.9 |
| High (°C) | 8 | 9 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 22 | 24 | 23 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 54 | 39 | 34 | 37 | 43 | 44 | 39 | 49 | 46 | 58 | 61 | 53 |
March is the driest month (34 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 24 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 61 mm of rain falls in November, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 30 nights a year. The climate in Ebbsfleet Valley →
9% of the area within 5 km of Ebbsfleet Valley is sea. 10 beaches are mapped within 5 km, 1 with a name.
The King Charles III England Coast Path passes the town.
Sea: the area outside the ONS coastline (mean high water). Bathing water quality is published by the Environment Agency (England) and Natural Resources Wales; check it before swimming.
Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap, against the typical UK town its size per resident. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
Plus 1 nature reserve without a name on the map.
Plus 2 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Plus 44 playgrounds without a name on the map.
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ebbsfleet Valley | A | 9.0 | 77% | 0% |
| Swanscombe 1.0 mi | A+ | 3.3 | 90% | 0% |
| Bean 1.1 mi | A− | 17.0 | 72% | 0% |
| Northfleet 1.6 mi | A | 2.0 | 85% | 4% |
| Stone 1.7 mi | A+ | 3.1 | 100% | 0% |
| Darenth 2.6 mi | A− | 1.8 | 100% | 1% |
| Istead Rise 2.9 mi | B− | 1.9 | 82% | 15% |
Stone, 1.7 miles away, grades A+, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park.
Swanscombe Heritage Park, 26 ha (65 acres), with 2.9 km of path, just outside the built-up area. 1 named park, garden or playing field is in the town or within 400 m of it.
The nearest protected landscape is the Kent Downs National Landscape, 4.1 mi east of the town’s edge. It covers 879 km² and was designated in 1968.
2 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the King Charles III England Coast Path: Grain to Woolwich and 1066 Harold's Way. Swanscombe Heritage Park alone has 2.9 km of path.
77% of residents live within 400 m, about a 5-minute walk, of a public park, garden or playing field (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace). The typical UK town is 83%.
May to September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
For paths, yes: 8.3 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 100% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 95% (9.0 ha per 1,000 residents).
From five measures, each placed among UK towns of 1,000 or more: public green space per resident, the share living near a park, National Park or National Landscape within 5 km, footpaths per square kilometre, and the sea within 5 km. It is a character grade and isn’t part of Ebbsfleet Valley’s overall grade.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.